29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot

29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot
Badge of the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot
Active	1694–1698 1702–1881
Country	Kingdom of England  Kingdom of Great Britain  United Kingdom
Allegiance	Great Britain
Branch	English Army  British Army
Type	Regiment
Role	Infantry
Garrison/HQ	Norton Barracks, Worcestershire
Nickname(s)	"Two and a Hook", "The Ever Sworded 29th", "Vein Openers" and "Guards of the Line"
Colors	Yellow Facings
March	Royal Windsor, 1791
Anniversaries	The Glorious First of June 1794
Engagements	War of the Spanish Succession Battle of Ramillies Boston Massacre Peninsular War Battle of Albuera First Anglo-Sikh War Battle of Sobraon
Commanders
Notable commanders	Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle (1731–1733) William Evelyn (1769–1783) William Tryon (1783–1788) Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Harrington (1788–1792) William Cathcart, 1st Earl Cathcart (1792–1797) John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford (1828–1850)

War of the Spanish Succession

Boston Massacre
Peninsular War

First Anglo-Sikh War

The 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1694. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 36th (Herefordshire) Regiment of Foot to become the 1st Battalion, the Worcestershire Regiment in 1881.

The regiment was first raised by Colonel Thomas Farrington as Thomas Farrington's Regiment of Foot on 16 February 1694. It was disbanded after the Treaty of Ryswick in December 1698 and reformed for the War of the Spanish Succession in 1702. The regiment served under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough at the victory at the Battle of Ramillies in May 1706 against the French and in the siege of Ostend in June 1706. In June 1727 the regiment saw action defending Gibraltar from a Spanish attack.

In October 1745, the Regiment was sent to Fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island. The following year, the regiment was in the Port-la-Joye Massacre during King George's War. The Canadiens and Mi'kmaq warriors massacred a significant portion of the regiment, in part, because they were unarmed. The battle led to an order that all officers in the regiment must always be armed, thus earning their first nickname as the Ever Sworded due to the swords the officers were required to wear even when off-duty.